White House Announces New Initiatives to Help Small Biz

If you watched the State of the Union last week (and it was hard to avoid on TV), you’ll probably remember the President’s theme on innovation, jobs, and encouraging small business.  The White House has used the past couple days to follow up on that message with some proposed policy and new initiatives. 

The big thing in regards to policy seems to be the President’s push to make permanent the elimination of capital gains taxes on investments held by small businesses, provided they are held a minimum of 5 years.  It’s an extension to a policy that was part of 2010’s Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010, but expires December 31^st 2011.    

On the new initiative side, the White House is partnering up with the Kauffman Foundation and Steve Case, of AOL fame, to put together what they are calling the Startup America Partnership.  Some of their main charges will be providing easier access to capital, offering mentoring and support to young start ups, and gathering “best practices” info to help start ups along with their growth.

They’ve partnered up with some huge hitters in the start up world and business in general, from Facebook to Intel to Tech Stars.  Google, HP, IBM and a host of others are also pitching in.  Facebook’s approach seems pretty interesting, so I hope they make a stop or 2 around the Midwest. 

With the public and private sector going at this together, I expect we’ll see some pretty cool stuff come out of it.